In The End
by Rose Ghost
Summary: What would have happened if Rose and Jack had escaped from Satalite 5 and the Doctor had been left stranded? Hopefully this story will shed some light on that question.
1. Chapter 1

**This is the result of an idea I had last week. What if Rose and Captain Jack escape from Satalite 5 in the TARDIS and the Doctor was left stranded? This was actually part of a challange that I proposed on a message board. This was my attempt. It gets better...promise...**

* * *

In The End...

Rose was walking from her bedroom to the TARDIS console room when she heard the terrible crashing and screaming. She rolled her eyes in despair and ran the rest of the way to the console room. She burst in to see Jack grappling with the large Crackjaw Bird (so named because of its ability to break open a human's skull with one snap of its beak) he'd adopted as a pet. When he saw her in the doorway, Jack sprang away from the Crackjaw Bird, which took the opportunity to knock him clean onto the floor. It then gave a satisfied little snarling noise which seemed to signify contentment and ambled over to the corner of the room, where it promptly fell asleep.

Jack glared after it for a moment and then turned sheepishl y to Rose. "Uh, hiya, Rose. I was just playing with...uh...George." Rose raised her eyebrows - the creature had a name now, did it? - and began to survey the damage to the console room. One of the chairs - the one the Doctor had always claimed was his favourite and never let her sit in - had a hole ripped out of the arm, and the console was scratched. Rose felt unbidden tears springing to her eyes. Oh, she knew wasn't coming back, not after all this time, but the TARDIS still belonged to him, and Rose had taken it as her responsibility to look after the machine in its owner's absence. "Look what you've done!" she yelled, "Why does that thing have to be in here anyway? Can't you lock it up in a room or something?"

"He'd get lonely..."

"I don't give a shit!"

Jack had a cocky, sarcastic answer ready on his lips, but he forced it away, and instead they stood glaring at each other, yet another argument brewing. Rose put her hands on her hips, fury in her eyes, "Get that monster out of the Doctor's console room," she said softly, dangerously.

"It's not the Doctor's console room any..." Jack strained to keep his balance as the TARDIS suddenly jolted in its flight and landed roughly, with a loud grating noise.

"Whoa! Where are we, Jack?" asked Rose.

"How should I know? I didn't set the coordinates."

"You must have. I didn't." The two humans stared at each other as the TARDIS juddered to a halt.

"Where does it say we are?" Jack asked, peering at the console.

"I don't know. The Doctor never got round to showing me how to fly this thing properly."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Rose giggled at Jack's comment at first, then her face crumpled up. She gripped the edge of the console, apparently deriving some comfort from it. She sniffed and a tear splashed onto the console, pooling around one of the buttons. Jack put a hesitant arm around her. "Hey, it's ok. He was a great guy, in his own way - hell, even I liked him. Sometimes." Rose sniffed again, loudly and buried her head in Jack's chest. "Lucky for me I wore my black top, huh, Rose?"

He held her until she finished sobbing and pulled away from him, rubbing her eyes. "Sorry about that," she muttered.

"Don't worry about it. All better now?"

"Yeah," she nodded and smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way, but with all the mascara stains, she just looked like a freakish, grimacing panda.

"Great. I think you ought to fix your make up before we go out there though."

* * *

"Is it just me, or does this place look familiar?" said Jack as they walked.

"As long as its not the Icemoon of Metabilis 38 I don't mind." Rose replied, looking around the dim corridor, debating which way to go.

"Yeah, that was fun wasn't it? I liked that game they used to play where they all went outside and had their clothes taken off by those oiled maidens and the last one to freeze to death was the winner," he went slightly glassy eyed at the memory.

"Jack, that was an execution."

"Was it? Best execution I've ever been to, that's' for damn sure..." Jack's voice trailed off suddenly as he marched round a corner. "Rose, I think you'd better come and have a look at this..." he sounded spooked. Rose followed the sound of his voice and found him standing with a pocket torch in one hand, and an old, bettered, familiar looking leather jacket in the other.

"Oh my God..." she put a shaking hand on the wall, terrified that she was going to faint. She swallowed hard and waited until the world stopped spinning in front of her eyes, "We're on Satalite 5. ..again..." Rose stared at the jacket like it was some kind of alien. "I wonder what happened. I mean...it's like..."

"It's like someone left this jacket for us to find. I think we should get out of here."

"No!" cried Rose. "The Doctor might still be here. He needs us."

"Not as much as I need me."

"Jack. We can't abandon him again. We can't."

Jack sighed. "Alright. He's probably dead anyhow, but we'll look for him. But if there's any sign of trouble - daleks, or defabricating robots with little guns in their heads, I'm splitting. Ok?"

Rose grinned, already hoping. "Deal."

A while later, Rose and Jack walked into a huge, well lit room, dominated by the "Bad Wolf Corporation" logo on one wall. The room itself was empty, except for metal flights of stairs and doors. LOADS of doors.

"So many doors, so little time..." muttered Jack.

"Let's split up - it'll be quicker," said Rose, heading immediately for the doors on the right side of the room leaving Jack on his own.

"Was it something I said?" he asked the empty room, "It's not you, Rosie, it's me..." He swaggered over to the nearest door and stepped through it, failing to see the imprinted name on the door: "Trinny and Susannah, season 74523 (Plastic Surgery Special)". He squinted in the sudden bright light, seeing two familiar figures. "Oh, no, not you two girls again." Jack's hand went for the gun he always kept at his belt, but didn't have time to reach it before one of the androids - Trinny - fired her gun first, stunning him.

* * *

Captain Jack awoke to find himself strapped to a white chair, blinking up into a bright - too bright - florescent light. "Not again...please," he moaned. The two robots sauntered up to him.

"Look who's come back to visit us!" said Trinny.

"Oh yes. But he hasn't taken any of our little tips on board has he?"

"No, he hasn't..."

"What shall we do with him?" asked Susannah.

"I'm not sure. He looks a little scruffy, I think we should send him somewhere to get cleaned up."

"Now that's a good idea." agreed Susannah. They moved back to the side of the room, to allow two other androids to enter the room. One of the newcomers had a mop of orange hair and a ghastly, clacky smile, while the other had yellow hair piled into a ridiculous bun and a feather duster clasped in one neon pink hand.

"Nooooo! Please, nooo!" Jack tried to wriggle free of his bonds and fainted as the metal harbingers, Kim and Aggie leaned over him, grinning.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rose had found herself in another dimly lit corridor. She walked along it, shivering slightly. "What's with the heating in this place?" she muttered. She zipped her jacket all the way up to the neck and stuffed her hands in her pockets. She longed to call out, to let the Doctor know that she was there, but she daren't - something told her she was not alone.

The corridor ended abruptly, but luckily there was a door on either side of her. Rose hesitated, deciding which one to pick, and finally went for the one on the right. Rose pushed open the door and walked into almost complete darkness. She left the door open to let in the dim light from the corridor and went further in. There was a sudden squeal as the door swung shut behind her before she could grab hold of it again.

"And this, birdwatchers, is a beautiful little creature known as 'Rose'. She's very rare - you'll be lucky to see one of her in your lifetime." Two bright yellow eyes, magnified by large binoculars loomed up at Rose out of the gloom. She screamed and ran for door, scrabbling for the door handle while laser shots flew all around her.

"Oops! I think I've scared her away. But let's see how my new tranquiliser gun works shall we?" said the Bill Oddie droid. Rose finally tugged open the door and fled into the corridor, charging into the 2nd room without even thinking about what might be in there. She screamed even harder when she came face to face with a tall man with a mess of dark hair and sharp brown eyes, but recovered a little when she realised that at least here was another flesh and blood person. She leaned against the wall and stared at the man. He stared back.

"Rose? It's me."

She blinked, too shocked at the use of the name to react in any way. She looked closer at the man. No. It couldn't be, could it? She knew the Doctor was an alien, but surely even he couldn't...could he? "Doctor? What happened?"

The man - the Doctor - took a step closer to her. "I died, Rose. You see...we Time Lords have a little trick we call regeneration. It's a sort of way of cheating death. We change into...into a new body, like this one. I know it's hard for you to understand - I can see that - but it's the truth." He looked at her, hoping she'd accept him, hoping she'd ask questions. But she could only think of one.

"So...how come you've got a Scottish accent?"

"Why, every planet has a Scotland. Haven't I taught you anything?"

Rose swallowed. "I kind of knew you'd say that." She raised her eyes to look at him again, still not quite believing that this was the Doctor. She needed to see some remnant of the old Doctor - her Doctor - before she could come to trust this strange man. "Where did you get the pinstripe suit?" She asked next.

"I borrowed it from Ant. From Ant and Dec's Sunday night Pizza Hut."

Rose realised she had to voice her doubts. "How do I really know you're the Doctor? Prove it."

He looked at her, momentarily stunned. "Ok. Your mum's name is Jackie and she hates me for taking her little girl away from her, I took you back in time to meet your father in 1987...you have a boyfriend called Ricky..."

"Mickey."

"Whatever. Do you want me to go on?"

"No." Rose walked up to him, staring in his eyes, trying to find something in there, something of the old Doctor. Different coloured eyes...but the same. "I've missed you," she whispered, close to tears now, hugging him so tight that she threatened to crush his ribs.

"Are you satisfied that I'm the Doctor now?"

"Yes. I think"

"Good. Now that's cleared up, would you like a cup of tea?"

5 minutes later they were sitting in front of the Doctor's improvised stove - "Anthony Worral Thompson will never miss it" - drinking tea and eating slightly stale bourbon biscuits.

"I can't believe it," said Rose, "Your actually quite handsome now - Jack will be jealous..."

"What! You mean I wasn't handsome before?" he demanded.

"Well...not in a ...er...conventional way...er..." she faltered at the look on his face.

"Well, I admit the ears weren't up to much, but even so..." he shook his head. "But while we're on the subject, how is the erstwhile Captain?"

Rose opened her mouth to reply, but before she could even make a sound, an indignant yell filled the room faintly.

"Get that feather duster away from me you robotic demon! Arrrgggh! No! Rose! Heeeeeeeeelllllllpppp!" This last was a rather girlish, high-pitched scream.

The Doctor and Rose looked at one another in horror as the shouts faded down the corridor. The Doctor smiled. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear..." he drained his tea and headed for the door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for the feedback everyone! It's good to know that people are liking this story. It's one of the few that I actually like that I have written.**

**I would also like to apologise for the little typos and mistakes in the first chapter. I hope it still managed to make sense.**

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Jack's day had gone from bad to worse. When he'd woken from his faint, he had been forced to drink something that Kim had insisted was coffee, although it obviously wasn't. Shortly afterwards he passed out again and woke up to find himself being dragged along a corridor on a metal trolley. He automatically began struggling but found that he was strapped securely to the trolley. Unable to think of anything else, Jack began to scream his head off. Where the hell was Rose? This was all her fault anyway - just because she wanted to go an a ridiculous mission to find her beloved Doctor, who had probably died years ago and his jacket leftfor them as a trick by these crazy androids. He dreaded to think what they intended to use the feather duster for. "Rose! Help! Help me, dammit. Heeeeeeeeeeelllllllllpppp!" Jack's throat was on fire from screaming, but he carried on, even though his hope was diminishing.

His stylised image of Rose coming to rescue him dressed in a skintight black leather catsuit and wielding an enormous machine gun faded abruptly as he was pulled into another dark room. Suddenly all Jack could do was think about the feather duster. Then the lights came on and he saw what was going to happen to him. All thought of Kim's feather duster flew out of his head in that moment and he started screaming again, despite his raging throat.

* * *

"We've lost him!" sighed Rose. She stopped running and looked behind her to see the Doctor labouring to keep up with her, wheezing with the effort. "Doctor!" She ran to help him. He leaned against her heavily for support and Rose realised how weak he was. What had he said about this regeneration thing? That he had died and had to rebuild his entire body. It made sense that he needed some time to recover from that.

She guided him to the wall of the corridor and helped him down gently, so his back was resting against the wall. "Rest, Doctor, just for a bit."

"I'm fine," he protested, but made no attempt to get up and instead leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Rose was right - he was weaker than he'd ever been after a regeneration, and he thought he knew why. Before, he'd always had some kind of companionship - to help him get back on his feet and resume normality. But here, on Satalite 5, the Doctor had only had himself for company for all these weeks, trying to stay sane, and avoidthose wretched robots - especially the Trinny and Susannah ones. There seemed to be hundreds of them wandering around on the satalite, cropping up like bad pennies...or bad wolves. He shuddered, struggled to chase away the deep feelings of horror and pain that had accompanied his latest death.

He'd heard the TARDIS leaving, as the golden light exploded all around him, and it seemed that with every wheeze and groan the time machine was taking a piece of his heart with it.

The Doctor looked at Rose and smiled at her, thinking that he'd smiled more in the last hour than he had in the last 6 weeks. He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it, already feeling stronger no wthat she was back with him. "I'm fine," he repeated. He suddenly thought of suggesting that they just leave Jack and go away in the TARDIS...like before. But he saw the worry in her face and knew that Rose cared as much for Captain Jack Harkness as much as she cared for the Doctor. The old Doctor, that was, she obviously wasn't sure about his new self yet. He wasn't sure if he was either, for that matter. Rose squeezed his hand feebly. She was scared. Scared to trust him, and scared of her own feelings.

"Rose, I only look different - I'm still the same on the inside." She didn't look reassured. "It'll be alright, I promise. It'll get better." I hope, he added mentally.

"It's just a lot to take in...that's all." Rose's hair was overshadowing her face, and the Doctor wasn't sure if she was crying.

"Rose? Rose, look at me," After a few moments, she did. She hadn't been crying, but she looked like she was about to: her lip quivered, and bright tears glistened in he eyes. "I'm still the same, Rose. Trust me. You learnt to trust me when the Nestenes tried to take over your planet, you have to learn again."

"I want to," she whispered, "I really do..."

The Doctor suddenly broke into a grin - the same grin, just with a different mouth - and for an instant, Rose saw a shadow of the Doctor's former self flit across his face. Then it was gone again. "Then come on. I think I might have a plan..."

Rose grinned back. Maybe she didn't need to relearn how to trust him - maybe she was already there. "Fantastic!"

* * *

"So what are we going to do?" Rose bubbled excitedly. It had been a long time the Doctor had taken control and saved the day and she was struck with a feeling of reverence - this is how things should be, she thought happily, it was never meant to be me and Jack giving an improvised performance and messing everything up - it's the Doctor's job to fix everything, not ours.

"Shh. You'll see." The Doctor lifted a finger to his lips, the plan still hiding behind brown eyes. He still liked to be as mysterious then - that hadn't changed, and probably never would, unless he regenerated into Jim Broadbent...Rose stifled a hysterical giggle at this thought, while in front of her the Doctor suddenly swerved and shot through a door into a room that was surprisingly light and cheerful. "Welcome to my workshop," he announced proudly, before diving into a pile of what looked like a mixture of cooking utensils and bits of defunct robots.

"Wow!" was all Rose could think of to say as she looked around her. It was horrifically untidy, that was true, but it also reflected the Doctor's personality perfectly. Her gaze caught on something that looked familiar and she walked over to it, unable to resist reaching out to touch the eyestick, to run her hands over the round dome of the decapitated dalek's head. The smooth metal was bitingly cold under Rose's fingers, and she removed her hand quickly. "Doctor, what are you looking for?"

"This!" he said triumphantly, pulling a small device out of the pile of junk. It looked like a TV remote control. Rose was almost too astounded to say anything.

"Right. So what are you going to do with that?"

"You'll find out. Now just be quiet for a bit so I can concentrate." To Rose's horror, he whipped out the sonic screwdriver and began prodding at the remote control device.

5 minutes later she was getting quite agitated and began to pace the floor impatiently. "How long is this gonna take? Jack could be dead by now. Doctor?" He was standing and staring at the little gadget, studying it. Suddenly he snapped a panel in place and tightened a couple of screws. "It's done...come along."

"Will it work?" Rose eyed the device doubtfully as they walked out of the door and back out into the corridor.

"Of course it will work!" The Doctor seemed shocked at the very suggestion that his toy wouldn't work, and he glared at her reproachfully. Despite being so worried about the Captain, Rose had to giggle at the Doctor's expression, and when the Doctor held out his hand for her to take, she took it, trusting him. They ran, hand in hand, to rescue their lost team member.


End file.
